Saturday night whisky review #3: Ardbeg Kelpie

It's Saturday night, and that means it's whisky time yet again.

Tonight I will again taste an Ardbeg Whiskey. Two weeks ago I tasted the Ardbeg Uigeadail, which review you can find through this link.

https://steemit.com/food/@walkerlv/saturday-night-s-whisky-review-ardbeg-uigeadail

However, I brought home another Ardbeg whiskey from my Islay trip: The most recent Ardbeg Committee Bottling: The Kelpie.

The Committee Bottling which I got comes in at 51.7% ABV

On Ardbeg Day (3rd of June 2017) a regularly available bottling coming in at 46% ABV was released.

What's special about this whiskey is it was matured in virgin oak casks, coming from oak forests close to the Black sea.

In the glass this whiskey has a very light colour. I am drinking it at room temperature. Therefore it is perfectly clear. Ardbeg does not chill-filter it's whiskey, meaning that if you drink this whiskey ice cold, it might look slightly cloudy. During the process of chill filtering; the proteïns and other components which give rise to this cloudyness are removed, but unfortunately, this also removes some aroma components. Therefore they forgo chill-filtering.

Anyway, it should be a crime to drink a whisky like this on the rocks. the flavour can only come out through a higher temperature.

AROMA

The Kelpie has a rather sweetish smell. we can find cocoa in this smell, some spices, a hint of vanilla, some solvent (paint-thinner) in a sense, the aroma of this whiskey is more remeniscent of a good rum, than of a whiskey, Also somehow, it smells thick. Oily, fatty,...

FLAVOUR

The flavour starts off with peat, as do all ardbegs, but is very well balanced. In the flavour you find some vanilla, which is logical because of the new oak barrels. Besides that, there is some salt. This is due to the barrels. The wood for these barrels comes from the black sea coast, and as such the trees have been exposed to more salt than usual, givinga salty tinge to the wood, which got transmitted to the wkiskey.

We also find a number of fruity tastes in this whiskey. Peaches, Apricots,... These are the things which might well have been lost by chill-filtering.

MOUTHFEEL

this whiskey hits you right at the tip of your tongue. It doesn't just impact, it stings. This is a sign that it is a young whiskey. Ardbeg generally doesn't bottle their whiskeys with an age statement, so we have no idea, but It is quite young. I'd guess at below ten years.

Besides the tongue stinging, it feels fairly thick in your mouth, and after having swallowed it, this keeps your mouth covered in a delicious sticky coating.

AFTERTASTE

the fruity flavours which came at the end of the taste present themselves further in the aftertaste. Later on in this aftertaste comes a flavour which reminds me strongly of smoked fish.

When I bought this whiskey it was one of the final bottles which remained at the distillery itself. I am glad I bought it. It is a delicious special whiskey., not for everyday drinking, but for lenghty sipping on a good night.

I'll be keeping an eye out for the 46% version by the time this bottle starts running low.